US-Russia meeting begins in Saudi Arabia

Officials from the United States and Russia began a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The American side has said that today's meeting is not about starting negotiations, but rather about seeing if Russia is "serious" about ending the war in Ukraine.

The Russian side, on the other hand, has said that the priority will be the normalization of relations with the US.

The American side consists of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Wikoff.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Yury Ushakov, foreign policy advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, represent Russia.

The February 18 meeting in Riyadh comes as Washington intensifies efforts to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine, although the tactics have rattled diplomatic circles in Kiev and Europe, as there is uncertainty about the type of agreement that could be reached in the future to end the conflict.

"This is intended to be the first step in a long process of negotiations, but things are moving quickly," said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British diplomat who is currently a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in several responses to Radio Free Europe.

"There is a fluidity that will continue to advance in these times of uncertainty."

The importance of the meeting

The talks between the two countries are the first high-level ones in recent years, and are aimed at paving the way for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The American delegation does not include retired General Keith Kellogg, the White House's special envoy to negotiate a solution to the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not been invited to participate in the talks and has said that Kiev will not recognize any agreement reached for Ukraine when Ukraine is not present at the negotiating table.

Zelensky - who is currently on a visit to the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - has confirmed that Kellogg will arrive in Kiev on February 20 for "lengthy talks on security guarantees".

What's on the agenda in Saudi Arabia?

Rubio told the American television network CBS in an interview on February 16 that the meetings in Riyadh are aimed at opening long negotiations that "include Ukraine and ending the war."

However, discussions between Rubio and Lavrov are expected to be broader than just Ukraine, and could include relations between Moscow and Washington, sanctions, energy and security issues.

Rubio also said that European governments and Kiev would be involved in the negotiations if they make progress after the meeting with Lavrov in Riyadh.

"If these are real negotiations - and we don't know this - but if they are going to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved, because they are being invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved, because they have sanctioned Putin and Russia, and they will contribute to these efforts," he said.

Before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Lavrov said on February 17 that Russia was not considering giving up the territory it had occupied in Ukraine.

While European leaders met in Paris for an emergency summit on Ukraine and defense issues, Lavrov said he saw no reason for the Europeans to get involved in the discussions.

"Nothing great will be achieved until Trump and Putin are in the same room," said Andrew D'Anieri, a senior fellow for the Atlantic Council, in several responses to Radio Free Europe.

"This means there is still time and plenty of opportunity for Europeans and Ukrainians to shape the ideas of the Trump administration."

What about the declarations of an end to the war?

Throughout the election campaign, Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine very quickly, and now his administration aims to fulfill this pledge in the first 100 days of taking office.

The talks in Saudi Arabia will take place after a series of statements made by him and American officials in recent days regarding the war in Ukraine.

On his first official trip to Europe since taking office, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on February 12 in Brussels that Washington does not support Ukraine's membership in NATO as part of a peace agreement, and it is unrealistic for Kiev to return to the borders it had in 2014, before Russia occupied the Crimean Peninsula and eastern Ukraine.

Hegseth also said that European military troops should be the main force to guarantee security after the end of the war in Ukraine, and that US military troops will not be involved.

On the same day, Putin and Trump held a phone conversation, which the US president described as a signal to end Russia's diplomatic isolation, as the two leaders are said to have discussed "economic cooperation" and Trump has called for Moscow's return to the group of seven most industrialized countries in the world (G7).

Russia was excluded from this group after it annexed Crimea in 2014.

What position is Russia in?

Initially, Putin aimed to capture Kiev and install a government close to Moscow.

Since this plan has failed, the Kremlin has been relentless in its attempts to occupy as much Ukrainian territory as it can and weaken Ukraine's military capabilities.

During the phone call, Putin told Putin that he wanted to resolve the "reasons for the conflict," signaling that Russia had given up on the idea of ​​thwarting Ukraine's ideas of integration with the West.

"If I were Putin, I would try to use the willingness of the United States to see if I could get as close as possible to my maximum positions, which I have had since the start of the war," said John Hardie, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, in several responses to Radio Free Europe.

Gould-Davies, a former British diplomat, has said that the Kremlin could push forward demands similar to those in 2021, before launching a full-scale war.

At that time, Lavrov had requested in talks with the American side that Ukraine be prevented from joining NATO, as well as the relocation of weapons and soldiers to the positions they had been in 1997, before the expansion of the military alliance to the east.

"Putin has been clear that he is not interested in a ceasefire, he just wants an end to the war," Gould-Davies said.

"This means some kind of solution to the fundamentals and the creation of a new regional order that could be more favorable to Russia."/ REL (A2 Televizion)